Problems at SFI Plc {parent company of the FYEO chain} continue with the company finding a £20m ” black hole ” in it´s accounts , the chairman resigning suddenly, and the shares being suspended. Administration for the group is now a possibility. SFI has been trying to sell FYEO for many months now but has failed partly due to the financial sectors reluctance to invest in the sex industry and partly because it wanted to sell the chain as a whole and has turned down any offers for individual clubs. The deteriorating financial situation of the parent company makes a change of ownership in some form in the near future almost certain.
The Dejavu { see www.dejavu.com }organisation which runs dozens of clubs in the USA has just opened a Paris club in conjunction with Larry Flynt { he of Hustler and ” The People against Larry Flynt ” fame}. The club called Hustler near the Champs-Elysees opened to celebrate Flynt´s 60th birthday the 31st of October. Apparently the story goes that their next move outside the USA will be in London probably once again in Westminster and this action could be followed by a number of the larger US chains.
Long time Rainbow girl and part time magician Kitty has set up yet another new strip agency and has already established a small network of pubs mainly in West London. She used for a time to dance under the name of Magic and incorporated various tricks into her strip act { sort of Paul Daniels meets Gypsy Rose Lee !}. The agency goes by the name of Angels { seewww.angelsexotic.co.uk } but the ability to pull a rabbit out of a G string is not yet compulsory for the other girls working there !
It appears that the ex rip off Platinum Club { as reported in September´s column} in Paul Street close to Finsbury Square is under new management and being run on more conventional table dancing club lines with a number of popular ex Brown´s girls now working there. Recent reports suggest that it may now be well worth checking out when next on a visit to London´s justifiably famous East End, and during November it reportedly introduced a { Browns style}3 shift 5 day a week system.
Filming started on another programme on the London strip scene this time featuring girls from the London School of strip run by ex Rainbow stalwart Jo King { see www.londonschoolofstriptease.co.uk }. It´s being produced by an independent TV company called First Freedom for eventual broadcast as a documentary on Channel 5 sometime in the New Year. The intention is to follow some would be professional dancers through the full course. The School itself does a wide range of courses catering for anything from housewives wanting to spice up their sex lives to professionals wanting to brush up on their advanced pole work using the famous Brown´s stage on Sunday afternoon when it´s closed for normal business.
Following on from their involvement in the Docklands club Majingoes the GMB union { Britain´s 3rd largest } has formed a section covering striptease dancers. Any interested dancers should contact Ana Lopes at [email protected] .
The Half Way House in High Wycombe which abandoned striptease in June { as reported in this column} this year has restarted obviously unsurprisingly finding it had a detrimental effect on trade. Apparently the Victoria in Hayes which dropped strippers at much the same time is now run by a born again Christian so I don´t expect a similar return to nudity there in the very near future however bad trade gets !
Spearmint Rhino´s relentless series of openings continues at some pace with a new club opening in Bristol at the end of November followed quickly by Sheffield { 14th of December } and Vauxhall, London . Further clubs are proposed for North London, Greenwich, Leeds, and Edinburgh and the company expects to have 20 clubs in the UK by the end of next year. The Spearmint Extreme in Birmingham has started featuring top models on selected nights in an attempt to fill it´s vast capacity and during November Jordon and Jo Guest both made appearances.
UK based competition is emerging for Spearmint in the south west is emerging in the form of the Gentleman´s Club chain which opened it´s first club in Swansea during November and plans to open one in Newport in January and further clubs in Bath and Cardiff in March. They are looking to have 10 to 12 clubs throughout the UK eventually.
Talking of Spearmint it appears that both it and Stringfellow´s have been having problems with customers using the new generation of picture taking mobile phones to transmit illicit photos of the dancers to their friends. The management of both places are promising to crack down on this practise though I must say it´s the first remotely interesting use I have heard of for these devices which sound about as useful a bit of technology as a Sinclair C5!
Rather surprisingly the Guardian {not normally noted as a newspaper which takes much interest in titillation it has to be said} has started a series of articles from a girl with the distinctive name of Catlin Gunn who has reputedly started working as a pub stripper. The columns are scheduled to appear every couple of weeks, given the newspaper´s readership I would be surprised if it gives striping a positive press , expect the usual descriptions of scruffy venues, supportive girls, and perverted men.
Tyke
Author: Saxon
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